Friday, May 24, 2013

"Short Term Stops": The revival

I don't know about you, but I'm excited for this weekend.

Why?

Because Arrested Development, one of my all-time favorite TV shows, is making a grand Netflix return this Sunday. After a long hiatus, the so-called "cult classic" is will finally be back in business. I couldn't be more excited.

Because of that, I guess now is as good a time as ever to announce my own big "revival" plan for the blog.

I'm planning on bringing back the "Short Term Stops" theme. At this time, I'm not exactly sure how or when it'll make its return, but I figured such a vital aspect of my collection needs its own time in the spotlight once again.

Since I retired that theme more than a year ago, let me give you a bit of a refresher course on what this whole "Short Term Stops" thing is all about.

As I've said time and time again on this blog, I've always had a deep fascination with guys who only wore certain uniforms for a short period of time. It's one of my oldest collecting habits.

Steve Carlton's short 10-game tenure with the White Sox in '86, for example, has long made him an important "hero" of the theme.

Since "Lefty" pitched for three teams that year (Phillies, Giants, and White Sox), his '87 Fleer issue is one of the extreme few "third-of-a-year" cards in existence.

That, of course, makes it a personal favorite of mine.

The overall goal of this theme of mine is basically two-fold.

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, I simply like giving insight on the various ways and means I collect these days. And, as I mentioned before, this "Short Term Stops" theme has long been a central part of my collecting enjoyments.

Plus, from what I've seen, it seems like quite a few collectors enjoy this particular topic of cardboard discussion. In short, it makes for some fun and easy-to-write posts.

For my second goal, well...let me just say this.

Raise your hand if you knew Vince Coleman was ever a Detroit Tiger.

I'd bet not many of you raised your hands on that one. (Kudos if you did, though.)

It's true, though. "Vincent Van Go" played in six games for the '97 Tigers before hanging 'em up for good.

Had I not found his '97 Ultra issue in a dime box a couple years ago, I would've been in the dark as well. With this theme, I'd like to try and impart a few little nuggets of information like those onto my readers.

Seemingly meaningless nuggets, yes.

But nuggets nonetheless.

As far as I know, I've only established one actual rule for "Short Term Stops" hopefuls.

In order to be considered, a player cannot have played more than one full year with a specific franchise. I usually count cards of players who played parts of two different seasons with one team, for what it's worth.

However, there are a few notable exceptions.

Yes, Hank Aaron's time with the Brewers and Willie Mays' Mets tenure each lasted two seasons. However, because both are so well-associated with the Braves and Giants, respectively, the sheer unfamiliarity of any other uniforms earns them a spot in this theme.

One of my personal favorite "two-seasoners" involves Ty Cobb's stint with the Philadephia A's. "The Georgia Peach" finished out his hallowed 24-year career with the franchise, hitting .357 and .323 in his final pair of seasons.

Instead of simply showing one card per post, as I did before, I'm thinking of perhaps making each post in the series more team-based. One day, I might show a few of my favorite Rangers "Short Term Stops" pieces. The next, perhaps a few Orioles ones.

And, although I'm fairly content with it, I'm considering changing the name of the series. To date, though, I haven't been able to come up with anything better than "Short Term Stops".

On top of that, I'm hoping to feature more of my favorite vintage pieces within each post.

Sometimes, I'm simply blinded by the sheer awesomeness of VINTAGE!!! to recognize that I have a fairly substantial "Short Term Stops" card on my hands.

This '63 Topps Minnie Minoso, for instance, has been in my collection for a while. Only now am I realizing how unfamiliar his tenure with the Cardinals actually was.

Minoso spent a whopping 39 games with the Redbirds in '63, the only season he'd spend in St. Louis.

With that, I'm looking to feature a fair amount of newer "Short Term Stops" inductees this time around as well.

For the most part, it usually takes a few years for a certain uniform to become unfamiliar in our minds. The thought of Bobby Abreu as a Dodger is still fairly fresh in my memory.

In a short while, though, I think people will look back on Abreu's successful career and say, "When the heck did he play for the Dodgers?"

Heck, as far as I know, some fans might be doing that already.

As part of this grand revival, though, I hope to recognize a few of the recent "Short Term Stops" from our National Pastime.

Some of last year's Flagship cards, such as Johnny Damon as an Indian or Jamie Moyer as a Rockie, will probably go down in history as "he played there?" pieces.

As I said, I'm not entirely sure exactly when I'm going to officially unveil the grand "Short Term Stops" revival. I still have a few kinks to iron out first.

Either way, though, I hope at least a few of my readers are excited for this. I received pretty good feedback during the theme's first go-round. I can't wait to get it up and going again.

Plus, if it doesn't work out, there's always money in the banana stand.

4 comments:

Don't know how you do it. You got two of my favorite things in one post. Arrested Development & Short-Term Stops.

But I'll do you one better. NO-Term stops. As a Dodgers collector two of my all-time favorite cards are 1972 Topps Larry Hisle and 1989 Score Mario Soto, both with the Dodgers even though they never appeared in that uni at the big-league level.

I always like getting cards in my Red Sox collection of players who spent very little time with the team. Tom Seaver is a personal favorite. He spent only a couple of months during the 1986 season with the team. Also Rob Deer, Rick Aguilera, Cliff Floyd, Orlando Cabrera, and more.